stefansson-wrangel-09-31-123v

202 THE ADVENTURE OF WRANGEL ISLAND

them to sleep out. But December 12th it was storming
and there was nothing else to do, so the boys built a house
for the dogs with a separate alcove for each of the seven,
and connected it by a covered passageway with their own
house so that a certain amount of warmth might pass
through. Knight does not explain it, but, according to
our customary way of doing things, they doubtless ar-
ranged that the dog house was on a higher level than the
living quarters of the people, the result being that as a
part of the ventilation system the warm air that was
going out of the house passed through the alleyway and
through the dog house on its way to the outdoors. Knight
was always very thoughtful about the comfort of animals
and his diary shows that he took a keen interest in this
provision for the increased welfare of the team. He was
feeding them warm cooked food every day. That was
not a kindness, for the dogs would doubtless have pre-
ferred frozen meat and the boys knew that very well; but
meat was short just then and the dogs as well as the men
had to live on groceries.

Although the best season for bears was over, there were
stragglers around in December. But in most cases some
accident allowed them to get away—usually the inade-
quate light and the fact that they ordinarily came around
at night. The entry for December 13th is typical, al-
though it records better fortune than ordinary. “Arose
early to go sealing, but there was a fresh breeze from the

north, cloudy and foggy, consequently nearly dark [even
at noon]. Galle went to his traps and I went to the trap- "
ping camp [of Crawford and Maurer] to haul them a big
log for firewood. A bear had been at their camp yes-
terday and had tried to come into their storm shed,
but he left rather hurriedly after some ineffectual